The Neighbourhood, "Sweater Weather"

The Neighbourhood, "Sweater Weather"

Because 90 percent of the record business is timing and sometimes it all lines up: In this case, a song with radio traction from what's basically a hometown band (Newbury Park) has hit the charts just at the moment the circus comes to the desert.

Lord Huron, "Time to Run"

Lord Huron, "Time to Run"

Because like the construction of their best songs, Lord Huron has a been a slow build. After a year of hard touring, last year's debut — Land of Dreams — is just now getting some of the credit it deserves. Like we said in our December roundup of the year's most underrated emerging artists, "Ben Schneider, the one-man mastermind behind Lord Huron, has crafted the haziest, most vivid, and, ultimately, most unapologetically melodic debut of the year."